Louvre, Arab Institute, and the Pantheon

We visited the Louvre again. This time, we headed for the big pieces, including the Mona Lisa. We're definately finding that we need to visit the museums more than once as it's hard to get a long, uninterrupted stretch of time to see the artwork. Luckily, people with strollers get to skip the entry lines, so we can get in quickly as soon as we have E asleep in the stroller

Yesterday, we walked over to the Arab Institute, which is basically a museum with a couple restaurants. We ate at the top-floor restaurant, called Zarab. The food was great (a like on the Tastingmenu scale), but the service was absolutely terrible. It took over an hour for our meals to arrive. Luckily the view from the outdoor terrace is spectacular, and we were able to take E outside while we waited -- you don't need to buy a museum ticket or eat at the restaurant to enjoy it either. They also have cool electro-mechanical window panels with a middle eastern design to them. The panels automatically open and close like a camera's aperature depending on the amount of light.

We walked from there to the Pantheon. The underground crypt holds the tombs of famous French revolutionaries and historical figures, like Voltaire (pictured below) and Marie Curie. The dome was famously used by Foucault to test his pendulum, thus demonstrating that the earth is round. (For a fun little backgrounder on Foucault pendulums, click here).

0 comments | Posted on November 2, 2005 | Save to del.icio.us

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